Supervisors: Prof Mary Ryan and Prof Milo Shaffer  (as part of a research team involving Prof Magda Titrici, Dr Ajit Panesar and Dr Ifan Stephens
Start date: As soon as possible
Duration: 3.5 years
Entry requirements: Applicants should have a keen engagement and solid background in materials processing and characterisation and a demonstrated interest in electrochemical energy storage. Experience of air-sensitive chemistry, electrochemical characterisation and advanced characterisation will be an advantage. Applications are invited from candidates with (or who expect to gain) a first-class honours degree or an equivalent degree in Chemistry, Materials, Engineering or a related discipline.
Funding: Funding is available for UK citizens and EU citizens who have resided in the UK for the past three years. The studentship is for 3.5 years starting as soon as possible and will provide full coverage of tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £17,609.
Closing date for applications: Open until filled

PhD Industrial Studentship in “In situ Evaluation and Nanoscale Design of Battery Electrodes for Optimized Performance and Lifetime”

Project summary: Applications are invited for a Ph.D. studentship focused on nanoscale battery anode design within the Chemistry and Materials Departments at Imperial College London. Whilst the project will have a fundamental focus, it will contribute to the wider development of energy storage systems. As part of a collaboration with a major international industrial partner, the research will target the development of sodium ion battery systems for grid storage to support the implementation of renewable energies.

The project will focus on fabrication and detailed assessment of optimized architectures for electrodes in sodium ion batteries, based on numerical simulations carried out as part of the wider project. In particular, the PhD program will develop and implement advanced operando characterization tools, based on X-ray, Raman and electron microscopy. It will exploit state-of-the-art equipment available at Imperial, including a brand new suite of atomic resolution instruments specified for electrochemical device studies, and in situ cells available as part of a collaboration with the Diamond Light Source national Facility.

Queries: Informal enquiries and requests for additional information for this post: Professor Mary Ryan or Prof Milo Shaffer. 
               Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to John Murrell.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena Bronze SWAN Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Two Ticks Employer.

Supervisor: Dr Stella Pedrazzini
Start date: As soon as the position is filled

Applications are invited for a research studentship in the field of additively manufactured titanium lattices, leading to the award of a PhD degree. The position is available immediately and will stay open until filled.

Project Summary:  

This work is building on an existing project on fatigue, wear and corrosion testing of additively manufactured components for bone implants. Ti64 is commonly used in bone implants due to its excellent properties and biocompatibility. Additive manufacturing offers plenty of options for custom-made implants, of different shapes and properties that can be custom-made to suit the needs of each person. The current project will test a range of lattices and compare their relative properties. It will also compare them to a newer alloy, which has yet to be used in implants. This will involve fatigue testing, corrosion testing, and advanced characterisation to understand how the properties of the implant evolve during use.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and self-motivated person who meets the academic requirements for enrolment for the PhD degree at Imperial College London. You need to have a background in Chemical or Mechanical Engineering, Materials, Chemistry or a related field, and an enquiring and rigorous approach to research together with a strong intellect and disciplined work habits. Training will be given in the relevant investigative techniques. You will become a skilled communicator, comfortable in an international situation. Good team-working, observational and communication skills are essential.  The project will involve close collaboration with an industrial partner.

To find out more about research at Imperial College London in this area, go to:   Home - Dr Stella Pedrazzini (imperial.ac.uk) 

For information on how to apply, go to:  Application process | Study | Imperial College London

Suitable candidates will be required to complete an electronic application form at Imperial College London in order for their qualifications to be addressed by College Registry.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Two Ticks Employer

Supervisor: Dr Stella Pedrazzini
Start date: As soon as the position is filled
Duration: 42 months 
Funding: Tuition fees at the home rate plus a stipend of £19,668 per annum

Glass fibres for insulation are spun with a spindle made of cobalt-based superalloys. Molten glass is highly corrosive and will eventually wear through the spindle. This project involves building a set-up for molten glass corrosion experiments at Imperial College and testing the effect of grain boundary morphology and precipitation (carbides, borides) on the corrosion rate of the alloy.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and self-motivated person who meets the academic requirements for enrolment for the PhD degree at Imperial College London. You need to have a background in Chemical or Mechanical Engineering, Materials, Chemistry or a related field, and an enquiring and rigorous approach to research together with a strong intellect and disciplined work habits. Training will be given in the relevant investigative techniques. You will become a skilled communicator, comfortable in an international situation. Good team-working, observational and communication skills are essential.  The project will involve close collaboration with an industrial partner.

To find out more about research at Imperial College London in this area, go to:   Home - Dr Stella Pedrazzini (imperial.ac.uk) 

For information on how to apply, go to:  Application process | Study | Imperial College London 

Suitable candidates will be required to complete an electronic application form at Imperial College London in order for their qualifications to be addressed by College Registry.

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Two Ticks Employer

Duration: 42 months

Supervisors: Dr Florian Bouville

Brittleness limits the design and lifetime of some polymeric, metallic, and almost all ceramic materials in both structural and functional engineering applications, from the design of plane engine turbine blades to the newest solid-state electrolyte in batteries. This brittleness is intrinsically present in material composition that cannot plastically deform and make them sensitive to any defect introduced during their fabrication or usage.

Metamaterial, by definition, uses architecturation to overcome intrinsic material limitation. Among all the possible architectures we could invent, a structure with interlocking elements is predicted to be the most capable of making tough samples from brittle composition. Interlocking mechanism is in theory extremely effective at diffusing damages because it allows elements to slide but at the same time creates local compressive stresses in response to macroscopic tensile stresses. A few natural materials confirm this, with some seashell and rock formation being able to deform despite being made almost entirely of ceramics. Now the real challenge is to develop processes capable of programming interlocking in the microstructure at the micro and nano scale independently of the composition.

The role of the PhD candidate will be to use digital light processing (DLP) additive manufacturing technique to fabricate metamaterials with rationally design microstructure to delay and slow-down crack propagation. This PhD position is part of a 5-years ERC Starting grant awarded to make small Scale interlocking mechanism for Strong and Tough mEtamatErials (SSTEEL) a reality.

The candidate will learn during this PhD light-based additive manufacturing technique, science of colloids, ceramic processing, sintering techniques, structural characterisations, and fracture mechanics along with strong transferrable skills in scientific methods, problem solving, and scientific results communications.

We are seeking applications from excellent, motivated and curious candidates with a minimum 2:1 (or equivalent) first degree in Materials Science, Chemistry or Applied Physics for a 3.5-year PhD studentship. The project will be based in the Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and the Department of Materials at Imperial College London.

Funding: This studentship will provide the standard maintenance stipend to students (currently an annual tax-free stipend aligned with the London UKRI rate) as well as tuition fees for home or overseas students.

Applications will be processed as received. For questions or further details regarding the project, please contact Dr Florian Bouville.

Closing Date: March 2023

For questions regarding the admissions process, please contact Dr. Annalisa Neri. Formal applications can be completed online: Application process | Study | Imperial College London but only after informal enquiries information about the Department can be found at  https://www.imperial.ac.uk/materials/

Supervisors: Prof Finn Giuliani; Dr Katharina Marquart, Department of Materials; Dr Sam Krevor, Department of Earth Science and Engineering 

Home Department: Department of Materials at Imperial College London (South Kensington Campus) 

Funding and Deadline: To be eligible for support, applicants must be “UK Residents” as defined by the EPSRC1. The studentship is for 3.5 years starting ASAP and will provide full coverage of standard tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £19,668. Applicants should hold or expect to obtain a First-Class Honours or a high 2:1 degree at Master’s level (or equivalent) in Materials Engineering, another branch of engineering or a related science. Funding is through the project InFUSE (Interface with the future: underpinning science to support the energy transition), funded by the EPSRC and Shell. 

Project summary: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) provides a very promising solution to sequester current CO2 production and allow critical process that are difficult to decarbonise to continue running into the future. Understanding the suitability of different rock types for CCS requires a detailed knowledge of among other things their mechanical properties both before and after CO2 injection. The mechanical properties of brittle materials are governed by their ability to dissipate energy which is often controlled by the properties of their interfaces. For example, weak interfaces can promote crack deflection and crack bridging mechanisms giving increased performance. These mechanisms have been studied and optimised in many structural ceramic systems however, in geological materials less work has been carried out. 

In this project we propose to both measure the distribution of interfaces and interface categories within different rock types and measure the mechanical the properties of individual key interfaces. In this project you will develop skills in micromechanics, high resolution electron microscopy included EBSD and synchrotron techniques at the Diamond Light Source, the UKs national synchrotron facility. This is a key partner in the project and will support the design of novel environments to study samples under operando conditions. This would give unique insight into the microstructure of candidate rock types. This could then potentially be extended to include samples that have been exposed to supercritical CO2. This could be particularly important in basalt rocks with their ability to mineralize CO2. This allows to cracks to fill with newly formed carbonates and silicates on relatively short timescales (~1-2 years). Yet the whole process of reaction driven cracking is not well understood. This is either regarded as beneficial for safety, by preventing leakage, or as detrimental as mineralization may seal fluid paths and thus reduce permeability. It should also be noted that these research techniques are quite general and a secondary program could be applied to completely different brittle material systems, such as the build-up of damage in battery materials leading to performance degradation. 

Informal enquiries about the post and the application process can be made to Prof Finn Giuliani by including a motivation letter and CV.

CDP Studentship with the Imperial College London and Tate

Supervisors: Professor David Payne (Professor of Materials Chemistry, Imperial College London), Dr Judith Lee (Conservation Scientist, Tate) and Dr Bronwyn Ormsby (Principal Conservation Scientist, Tate)
Start date: October 23
Duration: 45 months (3.75 years)
Entry requirements: To apply for this studentship, you must submit an online application by 10th September 2023. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an in-person interview at Tate Britain or a virtual interview.

• We are keen to encourage applications from a wide range of candidates with suitable qualifications and/or experience. Applicants should ideally have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification in a relevant discipline
• We also welcome applicants who can demonstrate equivalent experience
• Applicants should demonstrate an interest in and enthusiasm for developing their skills in the museum sector
• This studentship is open to both Home and International applicants. To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
  • Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
  • Have settled status, or
  • Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
  • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter
  • Download the full guidance (PDF)

NB. All applicants must meet UKRI terms and conditions for funding

Funding: Funding is available for both Home and International applicants. The studentship is for 45 months and will provide full coverage of full-time home fees and an annual tax-free stipend of approximately £20,218. If you do not qualify as a home student, you can still apply for this opportunity, but you will be responsible for paying the additional amount between the home and the overseas fees.

Closing date for applications: 10th September 2023 or until a suitable candidate is found

Project summary: This PhD studentship will enable a rigorous, primarily scientific study of the factors influencing the development of epsomite in oil paints, to reveal the wider impact of these perplexing salt crystals on modern and contemporary oil paintings and to inform possible mitigating measures to slow crystal formation and development. 

The successful candidate will be hosted by the Department of Materials at Imperial College London, joining a vibrant community of PhD students supported by experienced research and academic staff. You will be part of the research group of Professor David Payne, a world-leading expert in exploitation of advanced characterisation techniques. This includes the use of vacuum and ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy, and in-situ electron microscopy.

At Tate, you will join our community of doctoral researchers, benefitting from staff-level access to Tate’s collection, resources and events. You will be embedded within the Conservation Science and Preventive Conservation team within Tate’s Conservation Department, which will enable access to Tate’s scientific laboratories, comprising established and new analytical and imaging equipment to aid research processes using a range of archival material collections and selected samples from works of art in Tate’s collection, supported by colleagues in Paintings and Frames Conservation.

You will also have the opportunity to engage in a minimum of 3-6 months professional development, allowing you to nurture your career, gain transferable skills and expand practical knowledge alongside your studies. Throughout the PhD, you will also have the opportunity to engage in networking and events with Tate and the wider network of museums, galleries and heritage organisations affiliated with the AHRC CDP scheme as part of the CDP Cohort Development programme.

Queries: Informal enquiries and requests for additional information for this post: Dr Bronwyn Ormsby, Prof David Payne or Dr Judith Lee. Any questions regarding the application process should be directed to Dr Annalisa Neri. More details about the project and scholarship can be found in the Imperial and Tate CDP studentship1 application pack.

For information on how to apply, visit:  Application process | Study | Imperial College London

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena Bronze SWAN Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Two Ticks Employer.